


Claws Wulfenbach

by Purrs



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Jäger!Klaus, but here we are, the baron is an oblivious disaster, who really should have taken the time to learn the basics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-10 11:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15948347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purrs/pseuds/Purrs
Summary: A few years back, Klaus Wulfenbach had, shall we say, a lab accident. He's fine now, but he'll never be quite the same as he was.Now he's paying a trip to Beetleburg, and while he expected a certain amount of excitement, he didn't expect to have this many feelings about this completely random young woman he just met.





	1. Chapter 1

“ _No von move! Dis is hyu only varning!_ ”

“Tank you, Unit Commander, stand at ease.”

“Yah, Herr Baron.”

“Blast it, Klaus! You’re too early! I told you—”

“You have had _plenty_ of time, Beetle. Who are dese people?” There are three, a dark man with a moustache, a pale man with goggles, and a young woman with long blonde hair. Something about the girl catches his eye, though he isn’t sure what.

“Dr. Silas Merlot, my second-in-command,” Beetle says, indicating the goggled one. Klaus gives a brief hum of acknowledgement, and Beetle introduces the man with the mustache as Dr. Hugo Glassvitch. And then the girl: Agatha Clay. A lab assistant, it turns out.

Barely a moment after her name leaves Beetle’s lips, the doctor notices that she is apparently missing a locket, which is concerning. He then attempts to send her home, which is more concerning.

“She stays,” he says, and then thinks that maybe he should give a reason for it, but then again, ‘I want to be in the same room as this girl for as long as I can’ maybe isn’t the best thing he could say at this point. But he’s the ruler of the Empire, with all the authority that entails. So even without explanation, the girl stays.

Klaus remains somewhat distracted the entire time. Which is a tad unfortunate, seeing as how his suspicions prove correct that Beetle has been hiding a _goddamn hive engine_ , the revelation of which is followed by Beetle going on the attack. If anything, he’s almost more frustrated by the attack than by the engine. Almost. When Beetle calls in his clank guards, Klaus would so _dearly_ like to take them down himself instead of delegating the task, but no. He has an image to uphold. Particularly since his... _accident_ a few years ago, he needs to project as civilized an air as he can, which means he can very rarely afford to fight his own battles.

He restrains himself to flexing his hands until the tips of the gloves tear open, then digging his claws into his palms until he draws blood.

In any case, Gil resolves the situation. Agatha promptly expresses her anger at the manner in which Gil resolved the situation.

“How _dare_ you! You _murder_ one of the _greatest_ scientists in _Europe_ and you’re treating it like a _kitchen accident?!_ ” Her voice is taking on distinctly Sparky undertones as she rants. Klaus frowns; why would she be assigned to work _under_ Merlot and Glassvitch, two non-Sparks? Perhaps she hasn’t quite broken through yet? “The people of this city _loved_ him! When they find out how _you—_ ” She lets out a sudden scream, clutching her head in her hands, and Klaus moves forward to support her.

“Forgive her, Herr Baron,” Glassvitch says quickly. “She...she has these attacks when she gets upset.” Well, that’s not good.

“She’s right, Father. The people may not react well,” Gilgamesh points out, and Klaus makes a decision.

“Come up with a solution. You caused dis problem, I want you to fix it,” he says. “Beetleburg is now more directly my responsibility, and I would like to start dat off by providing an example of how I will react to crime.” He looks Agatha in the eye. “Can you tell me who stole your locket?”

 

* * *

 

It shouldn’t be this hard to find two soldiers, really. But they started looking in the early afternoon, and it’s now mid-morning. They’re only stopping for a bit because Agatha can’t stay awake any longer. So he’s taking her home and they’ll resume later.

That’s the plan, anyway. When they get there, there’s a soldier waiting outside with a grim expression and something in his hand which seems to fit Agatha’s description of her locket. Using what are clearly exceptional observational skills, he spots Agatha first and shouts, “You!” Only then does he notice Klaus and their entourage, at which point he freezes. Klaus offers him a toothy grin. The man takes off running before he can even say anything. A pair of Jägers head after him and drag him back.

Klaus stares the soldier in the eyes. “I believe you have something which belongs to this young lady?”

“You—you can _have_ it!” the man stammers. “It killed my brother!” He flings it right at Klaus, and it’s at that point that Klaus realizes that the locket is _in pieces_. He only just barely manages to catch them all.

“Mhm. How did it kill him?” he asks, but the man doesn’t seem to be interested in cooperating. Very well. He addresses the Jägers holding onto the man. “I’m led to believe Beetleburg has a particular method of dealing wit criminals. Why don’t you go put him in a jar?”

“N-no! Wait! He—he just _died_ , I don’t know how, he just...shut down. Please, don’t—!”

“Ah, yes,  _very_ helpful.” Klaus makes a shooing motion. “Go on, take him away.”

“Wait!”

Now that that’s dealt with, Klaus gets to turn his attention to the locket. He expected it to be a couple seconds’ fix, but once he actually gets a look at it...that’s Spark work, there. Maybe it did kill the brother. But it can’t be that simple, it hasn’t killed Agatha...

“Miss Clay?”

“Hn?” The girl turns her head in his general direction, but doesn’t quite make it all the way to facing him.

“Your locket, do you know what...” No, she isn’t going to be any help, not in this state. He’ll have to do this on his own. Now. What is this thing supposed to do? He reattaches some pieces, detaches some pieces, inspects the innards from every angle—is that a harmonic dampener? Interesting—the style is naggingly familiar, he should really be able to identify the creator but it’s just unfamiliar enough that he can’t _quite_ place it, which is _hell_. And some parts are bent or broken which is rather unhelpful here but he’ll work with what he has, see, there are these convenient pieces of paper inside which he can fold _just_ right into miniature tools, and...

And that _can’t_ be the purpose of this device, can it? That would just be _cruel_. But no, he can’t imagine what else it would be.

How dare they.

How _dare_ they.

He’s just gone to all this effort to put the locket back together again, but now he breaks it deliberately. Breaks all the inner workings so that it could never be repaired or recognized for what it was able to do.

“Miss Clay,” he says, slowly and clearly, “I am going to make sure your parents never catch sight of you again.”

He was dubious that she would register what he said, but register it she does. “What?” she says, in a tone that had the potential to be demanding if it were a bit less woozy.  “No!”

“Do you know what dey’ve _done_ to you? You have the Spark, and your _parents—_ ” he spits the word—“have been _suppressing_ it. For years, maybe. As long as you were wearing dat— _ting_ , it forced down your Spark, kept you from breaking trough.”

“Adam and Lilith love me,” she insists.

Klaus sighs. They’ll have to have this conversation again when she’s fully lucid again. But for now—“We’re done here,” he announces. “We’re going back to Castle Wulfenbach.”

Agatha hardly seems capable of going anywhere on her own, so Klaus lifts her in his arms. It’s now that he finds a definite answer to something that was puzzling him: he’s been smelling something for a while now, but the wind has been fickle and thwarting his attempts to figure out precisely what it is. Until now.

Interesting. He hadn’t pegged her as the type to wear perfume, but Miss Agatha Clay smells very, _very_ nice.

 

* * *

 

_Two years ago:_

_Klaus wakes up in a bed, curled into the fetal position save for an arm splayed out across the mattress. He didn’t leave his lab yet, he doesn’t think, so how did he get here? He struggles to orient himself—he remembers—he remembers pain, mostly. Too much pain. He thinks he was working on another attempt to...make himself...resistant...to..._

_Oh, no._

_He cracks open an eye—and stares at his arm. His bright green arm. His bright green arm whose fingers are tipped with long, glittering claws._

_“Zo,” came the voice of General Khrizhan. “Hyu iz avake. Iz dere zumtink hyu vould like to tell us about vot hyu haff been up to?”_

**_Shit._ **


	2. Chapter 2

_The first thing he says is: “I din’t go looking for Heterodyne secrets.” Or, well. That's the first intelligible thing he says. There's a bit of trial and error where he's figuring out how to say things while hurting himself as little as possible._

_“End yet you_ iz _a Heterodyne secret now,” General Zog says. “Funny, dot.”_

 _“Dere was a Spark wit an army of geese, near a town downriver of Mechanicsburg. I was dealing wit dat and I noticed traces of someting in de water_ — _in de Dyne. I din’t know it would do dis.” He grimaces at the words in his mouth. He’ll need to work on his diction._

_The generals consider this. It’s General Goomblast who says, “You’ll need to svear de Jägertroth.”_

_No. If Bill or Barry return, they wouldn’t need it to get his help. If some other Heterodyne appears, he has no guarantee that they wouldn’t use_ his empire _to wreak havoc. And...he’s a Jäger now, with all the extended lifespan that implies. (He’s a_ Jäger _. It hasn’t really sunk in.) If the Heterodyne lineage resurfaces, he’ll be seeing a lot of them over the years. All it would take would be one bad one. And looking at their family history, there’s been far more than_ one.

_Then he remembers Captain Vole and is reassured. He can always renounce it, if it comes to that. “Very well,” he says._

 

* * *

 

So far, Agatha thinks, today has been _fantastic_. Well, true, no one’s been able to find her parents, which might mean either something has happened to them or, more likely, they don’t want to be found. _Why_ they wouldn’t want that is a puzzle; it’s true that they’ve never liked the Empire, but one would _think_ they’d want to see their daughter. Wherever they are, though, they’re probably okay. What’s more concerning is what the Baron’s said about them, about what her locket did to her. (She has it back now, but even knowing the mechanism is destroyed, she hasn’t put it back on yet.) They love her, she knows they do. They’re her parents. If only she could see them again, they’d give her a good reason. There’s also the fact that _apparently_ the Baron _ruined_ her photos of her parents when he was taking apart her locket. He may not have done it intentionally, but she’s going to be just a little mad at him for a while. And then, of course, she can’t figure out what the Baron’s _deal_ is with her.

All that aside—it’s been amazing. She’s a Spark now. Her mind is going faster than it ever has before, and she hasn’t gotten a single headache. She has her own lab, and all the equipment she could need, and a couple of tiny helper clanks that _she made_ because she’s a _Spark_. She’s not in her lab right now, though. She’s in a vacant one, helping Gil. Who isn’t all that bad, really, when he’s working on a project and not throwing a bomb at her mentor’s face.

Someone barges into the room, saying, “Excuse me, Doctor, mimmoth exterminators...”

“Wow. Does that _ever_ take me back,” Gil says.

“Wha—? _Gil?!_ ”

Gil argues with the boy for a bit, then offers him and his three companions a place to hide. Once that’s done, Gil gives her a bit of background context on the group—children of noble families, sent to attend school on the castle. And then the two of them get back to work.

Or, they try to, anyway. Not half an hour later a Jäger shows up saying that he’s supposed to bring her to a party, and off she goes.

 

* * *

 

Klaus is working in his lab, or really, he’s waiting for a process to _finish_ so he can _resume working already_. As he stands there, the problem of Agatha’s locket reminds him again of its existence. The work was familiar, _achingly_ familiar, but he’s never even heard the name of either of the parents before this. It’s been like a missing tooth that the tongue can’t stop prodding at.

And then. And then he thinks: Barry. It’s a stray thought but he catches onto it and it’s possible. It’s _very_ possible. A Barry in hiding, a Barry older by at least three years and a war against the Other, reasons why he hadn’t seen it immediately, but _Barry_. But then, how would it have come into Agatha’s possession? Her parents might have just found it somewhere and thought it useful, but it looked like it had been made for Agatha specifically. Which means Agatha is... _what exactly?_

A Heterodyne?

No. Can’t be. He’d have known. He doesn’t talk much with the Jägers about this kind of thing (he doesn’t talk much with the Jägers), but he’s picked up more than enough to know that Jägers can identify a heterodyne in _seconds_. He took (a makeshift version of) the brau, he swore (under some amount of duress) the troth, he’d _know_. He _would_.

So she has some sort of connection to Barry, but she’s not a Heterodyne. Not Barry’s, not Bill and Lucrezia’s.

Or.

Not _Bill’s_.

Lucrezia isn’t out of the question.

And once the thought is in his head—Agatha’s hair. Her _voice_. She doesn’t speak the same _way_ Lucrezia did, but the voice itself is near spot on. God.

So. Lucrezia and...

... _himself?_ There certainly were... _opportunities_...

But no, the dates don’t match up. Agatha is several years too young for that. So who? Sturmvoraus, maybe? Aaronev had always supported Lucrezia in everything. And knowing him, if he had that kind of chance, he would’ve taken it. So that’s a likely possibility.

Oh. That’s why Barry would have made that locket. Maybe he shouldn’t have destroyed it so thoroughly. Still, he might be able to create a passable copy from memory. Though...she hadn’t been _raised_ by Lucrezia, or Lucrezia’s agents, not with that device of Barry’s around her neck. And if Aaronev knew about her he’d have her _with_ him. Presumably she ended up with Adam and Lilith Clay because of Barry. God, those people Agatha calls her parents need to hurry up and get _found_ , Klaus has _questions_.

In any case, there’s a good chance that she won’t be like her parents. He wants to believe she won’t be like her parents. He’s going to relocate her to a lab that _isn’t_ so close to Gil’s, enroll her in some classes, and have the school devote more time to ethics.


	3. Chapter 3

_Gil is_ pissed _. He was supposed to have three more months in Paris. Three more months of freedom before the_ entire rest of his life _. But no, apparently his_ father _decided to summon him back to the castle, and didn’t even bother to give a good reason. Or any reason. So when he’s told the Baron wants to see him, he’s ready for a fight. Hopefully he’ll be able to get a word in edgewise._

_He slams the door open, and...and the Baron is standing there waiting for him, with his hands clasped behind his back, an expression like he finds the whole world mildly frustrating, and green skin, and all of Gil’s thoughts are derailed. The Baron’s lips look like they were shredded and given a few days to heal. Gil realizes the cause when the Baron opens his mouth to speak and slices his lip open on a sharp-edged tooth, hissing in pain. The cut has started healing by the time he finishes saying, “Hello.”_

_“You’re a Jäger,” Gil says._

_“I’d razzer noticed dat,” the Baron says._

_Gil has to fight to keep a straight face. “When did this...”_

_“Tree days ago.”_

_"Father," Gil says, struggling to find anything intelligent to say, "why did you do that?"_

_His father looks harassed. "It was an accident."_

_"...You've got to be joking."_

_“People keep saying dat to me, yes.”_  

 

* * *

 

“The Baron’s been taking a lot of interest in her.”

“She’s a nobody, though. Sure, she has the Spark, but her parents are _commoners_. She’s got no political connections at all.”

“I heard her ‘parents’ aren’t her _real_ parents.”

“Nah, see, the Empire’s trying to make us _think_ her parents aren’t really her parents. So we’ll believe them when they say she’s secretly been the Baron’s kid all along, just like last time.”

“I’ve told you before, Gilgamesh really is a Wulfenbach.”

“And I’ve told _you_ , if he _is_ , why did no one know until just recently? It was obviously just announced so the Baron could have a convenient _human_ heir. Everyone knows that.”

“Well, _duh_.”

“Gilgamesh is totally also a Jäger, though. The Baron just found some way of hiding it in him.”

“...Huh, I can see that.”

“What if _she’s_ a Jäger?”

“What if she’s a Heterodyne?”

“The Heterodyne kid was a boy.”

“We don’t _know_ he would’ve stayed a boy if he grew up.”

“He wasn’t even a Heterodyne, he was the Baron’s. The family died out with the Heterodyne Boys.”

“Guys, we’re way off track. We might as well say she’s the heir to the Storm King.”

“...What if she’s the heir to the Storm King?”

“She could be a Muse?”

“I think she might actually be the Baron’s daughter. I heard that someone said that someone said that the Baron is going to have her and Gilgamesh fight to the death to see who gets to take over the Empire.”

“She’s just a Spark. But she’s gonna be the biggest, baddest Spark around. I heard her breakthrough killed a thousand people and the Baron is just hushing it up.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ why he’s having us focus more on ethics!”

“Nah, see, she found a way to the Americas.”

“She’s _from_ the Americas.”

“I heard the Baron is grooming her to be his wife.”

“I heard the Baron is grooming her to be his _son’s_ wife.”

“I heard that one too, and Gilgamesh got really flustered when someone brought it up.”

“That’s gotta be it.”

“See, _I_ heard...”

 

* * *

 

The party turns out to be tea and supper with the Jäger Generals, which is surprisingly enjoyable. They were intimidating at first, well, they’re still a little intimidating, but the conversation is nice and Agatha’s relaxed. And then General Khrizhan asks about her parents, and her brow creases.

“Well, my father’s a blacksmith. My mother gives piano lessons. I’m...worried about them,” she admits.

“Yah, dey haff disappeared. Our men have been lookink. Dey obviously do not _vant_ to be found. But dey _vould_ vant to know dot you vas all right. Iz qvite puzzlink.”

“That’s just what I’ve been thinking.” Agatha sighs. “And then there’s the locket my Uncle Barry made for me...”

For some reason this makes all the generals stare at her with a fervor that seems to have come out of nowhere. She squirms under the intensity of their gaze. “Iz your Uncle Barry mit dem?” General Zog asks.

“No,” she says, and the mood deflates. “We haven’t seen him in years. He left when I was just a kid.”

“Dot’s too bad,” General Goomblast says, and it sounds like he really means it. “Still, it iz good dot you iz here, miztress.”

She takes a moment to try and process that. Nope, her ability to process isn’t working. “What.”

“Vas you vanting to keep dot hush-hush? Ve ken keep a secret,” says General Khrizhan. “Only you smell like Heterodyne end you mentioned Barry.”

What did her Uncle Barry have to do with...Barry. Like Barry  _Heterodyne?_

Agatha stares at the Generals. The Generals stare right back. After a few minutes, General Zog changes the subject. “Zo you vent flyink mit der young Wulfenbach. Vot you tink ov _him?_ ”


End file.
